The 3,000 voters in Kassena-Nankana still cannot vote - Chief Justice

The 3,000 people in the Kasena Nankana District who the Human Right Court ordered to be registered to take part in the upcoming elections can still not vote on Friday.

This because the Regulation 9 (5) of CI 72 which deals with an individual’s right to register and to vote indicates that the Electoral Commission (EC) is still prohibited from including in the voters register the name of the person who qualifies to register as a voter for an election but who registers less than sixty days to that election.

This issue came to the fore when a five-member delegation from the African Union (AU) and ECOWAS Election Observer Mission led by General Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria on paid a courtesy called on the Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Wood at his office in Accra.

The delegation is in the country to observe Friday’s general elections.

The meeting between the Chief Justice and the group also offered them the opportunity to learn at first hand measures being put in place by the judiciary to resolve electoral disputes should they arise during the process.

During the discussion, Mr Musa Fatau, Director of Political Affairs, ECOWAS posed a question whether the short time left for the EC to register the 3000 people were going to be registered and added to the main register would not pose a problem to the whole electoral process.

The Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Wood said the 3,000 people cannot vote and even if they allowed to vote somebody can challenge that action in court.

Justice Sule Gbadegbe, Justice of the Supreme Court, who also commented on the issue said even if the 3,000 people were registered by the EC they still cannot vote because the duration of the date of registration and the voting date is less than sixty days.

He said education on that aspect of the law would help inform the public on how one can register and qualify to exercise their franchise during the elections.